No eternal rest for the dead in crowded Singapore

By Kevin Lim and Eveline Danubrata SINGAPORE | Tue Nov 27, 2012 2:02am EST SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Eternal peace does not last long in Singapore. Starting early next year, workers with heavy machinery will begin constructing an eight-lane highway across the small country's oldest surviving major cemetery, overriding the objections of nature lovers and heritage buffs. Singapore, with its 5.3 million people crammed onto an island less than half the size of London, is already more densely populated than rival Asian business center Hong Kong, making permanent burial space unfeasible. The whole of Bukit Brown - the resting place of more than 100,000 people, including some of Singapore's pioneering business and clan leaders and their large, intricately carved tombs - will eventually be used for residential development. At least 30 people buried there have streets named after them....